12 Tips on Hiring a Photographer

April 18, 2015

Hire a professional. Hire a professional. Hire a professional. Your wedding photos will be cherished for years to come and by many generations. The iPhone photo might be okay now, but in 20 years you will be thankful the great wedding portrait. Unless Uncle Bob is a professional photographer…don’t trust him to take the photos either. Most wedding horror stories come from bad photography, just google it.

Create a memorable, take-home token for your guests. Set up digital photo booths during the cocktail hour. There are many ways the photos are stored and displayed, find the way that fits your vision!

Love formal pictures? Talk to your photographer about setting up a backdrop, stool and lights for portraits of guests too. This is a great option for large families!

When looking for a photographer ask them to see pictures from one complete wedding rather than his of her “best of” collection. This will give you a great overall impression of their work.

Make sure you like your photographer and their personality. Your photographer will, in fact, become your third wheel so make sure you “click” with and are comfortable enough with them to get you in some unusual aspects. Also make sure that you have complete trust in your photographer. If you don’t have that trust you could spend the entire day giving orders.

If you will hurt Uncle Bob’s feelings by not hiring him as the main photographer, ask him to take photos of the “other” wedding movements. Specifically the the fittings, showers, and rehearsal dinner.

Get creative with your guest book. You can have theme sign a photo mat with silver pens so that you can frame your wedding photos and remember who was there. Or you can create a photo album of your engagement photos and have them sign that. Professional wedding photographers will have a lot of ideas and options.

Think about having an “unplugged” wedding. This means asking your guests not to take pictures and just enjoy the moment. Sometimes guests can ruin the professional photos by jumping in and “getting the shot” especially during the ceremony.

If you are tech savvy and love social media…create a hash tag for your wedding and have your guests use it!

Have a silent slide show going on behind the main table with either baby until now or just couple pictures. This is especially nice if someone who is rather shy has to give a speech, knowing that attention won’t be directly on them.

Have copies of younger photos of both the bride and groom on regular paper with bubble coming out of their mouths/heads for the guests to fill in. You really find the creative ones in the family in this “activity”.

Think about displaying photos of your parents, grandparents and great grandparents wedding. It is a nice sentimental touch!